As a system it seems to work admirably. The only thing is, is the reason why relatively few people take advantage of it because they choose not to, or because they didn't realise it was there to be used? And the value of this thread is that it draws their attention to it, and I suspect there are quite a lot like that.

That isn't a complaint about the existence of the photros and the profiles facility not being better signposted. One of the good things about the Mudcat, as I see it, is the fact that it's quite complicated. You can still find surprises about it after being a regular here for yonks. Like a neighbourhood, in fact, you go a different way one morning and notice a path you hadn't ever seen before.

To quote Tolkien, which seems particularly timely this week with the new film out:

"Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate,
And though we pass them by today,
Tomorrow we may come this way
And take the hidden paths that run
Towards the Moon or to the Sun."

One facility which perhaps might be added, in the light of the way the Internet has developed, would be to have, alongside the photos and the profiles and such under Members' Photos and Info, a section of links to "Members' Websites", subject to them requesting such a link to be included. And of course people can edit and amend their own website, or a profile page within it, as much as they choose.

But I think signing up to the Rogues Gallery of photos is the most important thing - it's a way of being friendly towards other Mudcatters.